This invention relates to an aircraft protection system, and is particularly concerned with a crew protection system for safely evacuating aircraft, especially hypersonic vehicles, in emergency situations, e.g. in the event of an uncommanded failure or explosion of the main fuel tank.
The prior art to date has failed to address the problem of protecting the crew of an aircraft from the effects of a sudden overpressure created by a catastrophic failure of the main vehicle fuel or propellant tank. The prior art deals mainly with commanded or dedicated systems for removing the crew compartment from the remainder of an aircraft vehicle in an emergency, but fails to deal with means to activate or initiate crew member escape systems due to the uncommanded catastrophic failure of the vehicle resulting from a propellant tank explosion. Further, existing crew protection concepts impose unacceptable weight penalties and are not cost efficient.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,746 discloses a capsule and rocket extraction system for providing an inflight escape system for the pilot of a damaged aircraft, comprising means for sequentially actuating a capsule extraction device to separate the capsule from the main fuselage and then actuating a rocket for extracting the pilot from the capsule.
Other exemplary prior art showing various forms of crew escape mechanisms for aircraft include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,703,265; 3,377,037; 3,374,965; 2,941,764; 3,067,973 and 2,977,080.
Each of the above patented escape systems specifies a propulsion unit for crew compartment separation. Generally, the prior art deals with dedicated extraction systems such as dedicated rockets to activate crew member escape systems.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an escape system for crew protection of an aircraft, particularly a hypersonic vehicle, under catastrophic conditions of the vehicle.
Another object is the provision of a crew protection system for aircraft in the event of an uncommanded catastrophic failure or explosion of the main fuel tank.
A still further object is the provision of means to permit crew members to escape from aerospace vehicles, by permitting the crew-containing capsule to be thrust clear from the remainder of the vehicle, in an emergency situation resulting from an uncommanded failure or detonation of the main fuel tank, thereby providing a weight savings over prior art methods of crew protection, such as the use of dedicated rockets, particularly at hypersonic speeds.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention.